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Animal Eyes See The World In Astounding Ways

February 4, 2016

Written byCuriosity Staff

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Humans tend to have a very narrow idea of what eyes can do and where they are located on an organism's body. But the natural word has a knack for defying our expectations: scallops have multiple eyes lining their fleshy mantles, sea stars have eyes at the ends of their arms, and some blind cave fish don't have eyes at all-just skin where their ancestors' eyes used to be. There's also incredible variation among more "traditional" eyes (i.e., those located on one's head). Some, like eagle eyes, can pick out small details from miles away. Others, like a flatworm's, can only differentiate between light and dark. Evolution has resulted in eyes that are meant to perceive vastly different stimuli, which is why we could stand to be a little more humble about what we think we "see."